Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-07-21
CHAPTER M.

And now l come to perhaps the StrangeSt
thing that happened to Us III all that strange
business and one which shows how won
derfully things are brought about.
[ was walking quietly along, some way in
front OF the otIer TWO, down the banks of
the stream which ran from the oasis till it
was swallowed up in the hungry desert
sands, Wh,n suddenly stopped and rubbed
my eyes, us we'll | might. There not tWen-
ty yardS iii front, placed in charming stu
aCiOn, under the shade Of a species of fig
tree, and facing to the stream, was coy
hut built more OF less on the Kafir principle
OF grass and WltneS, only with a full-length
door instead of a bee-hoIe.
What the dickens" said [ to myself,
'can hut DE doing heren Even as | said
it, the door of the hut opened, and there
limped out of it a white man clothed in
skins, and with an enormous black beard. [
thought that must have got a touch of the
| sun. lt WAS impossible. No hunter ever
came TO such a place as this, Certainly no
hunter would ever settle in it. l stared and
stared, and 50 did the other man, and
just at that juncture Sir Henry and GOOD
came up.
look here, you fellows L said, sis that
white man or am l mad?'
Sir Henry looked, and Good looked, and
then all OF sudden the lame white man
came hobbling toward us. When he got
close, he fell down in a sort Of faint.
With a spring Sir Henry was by his side.
Great PowerSp he cried!" sit is my
brother GeOrge.'
At the sound OF the disturbance another
figure, also clad in skins, emerged from the
hat with gun in his hand. and came run
ming toward us. On seeing me he, too, gave
q cry.
''AIacumazahn,'' he halloed, ''don't YOU
know me, Baas? I'm Jim the hunter. L lost
the, note you gave, me to give to the Baas.
And the fellow fell at my feet, and rolled
over and over, weeping for iOy.
You careless scoundrelP' I said; ''you
ought to be well hided."
Meanwhile the man with the black beard
had recovered and got up, and he and Sir
Henry were pump-handling away at each
other, apparently without word to say.
But whatever they had quarreled about in
the past q suspect it was lady, though |
never aSked), it was evidently forgotten
My dear old fellow" burst out Sir Henry
at last Il thought that you were dead |
have been over SOlOmon's Mountains to find
you, and now come across you perched in
the desert like an old aasvogel (yu!ture)."
Il tried to go over SolOmon'S Mountains
nearly two years ago." was the answer
spoken in the hesitating voice of a man who
mas mad little recent opportunity of using his
tongue, but when got here, g bOwlder fell
on my leg and crushed it, and L have been
able to go neither forward nor back"
Then | came up. How do you do, Mr..
Neyille?' | said; do you remember me?"
Why" he said, isn't it Quatermain, ell,
and Good tooe Hold on a minute you fell
lows, am getting dizzy again. 1t is all so
very strange, and, when man has ceased to
hope, SO very happy"
4is+t evening, over the campfire George
Curtis told us his story, which,, IN It's way,
was almost as eventful as our own, and
amounted shortly to this. A little short OF
two years before he had started from Stan
da's Kraal, to try and reach the mountains
A tlA | IT hat
worthy had lost it, and he had never heard
OF it till to-day. But acting upon informa-
ton he had received from the natives. he
made, not for Sheba'S Breasts, but for the
laaderllke descent OF the mountains down
which we had just come viii III was clearly
better route than that marked out in old
Don SllveStra'S plan. In the desert he and
Jim suffered great hardships, but finally
they reached this oasis, where a terrible ac-
cident befell George Curtis. On the day of
their arrival, he was. sitting by the, stream,
and Jim was extracting the honey from the
nest of a stingless bee which is to be found
in the desert, on the top of the bank imme-
diately above him. In so doing he looSed a
bowlder of rock, which fell upon George
Curtis right leg, crushing it trightfully,
From that day he had beer so dreadfuly
lame, that he had found it impossible to go
either forward or back, and had preferred TO
take the chances OF dying on the oasis 30 the
certainty of periShing in the desert.
AS for food, however, they had got on
pretty we'll, for they had good supply of
ammunition, and the oasis was frequented,
especially at night by large quantities Of
game, which came thitner for water. These
they shot, or trapped i'll pitfalls using their
flesh for food, and after their clothes wore
out, their hides for covering.
''And SOL he ended" we have lived for
nearly two years, like a second Robinson
Grusoe and his man Friday. hoping against